The evening of the occultation was a Saturday night. This is
the evening when the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory opens
it's doors to the public for tours of the facility from April
through October. The local Centre of the RASC here in Victoria
has volunteers who set up their telescopes on the grounds of the
observatory and invite the public to view the night sky.

The occultation was late enough that we had time to go for the
traditional cup of coffee after closing time. When we left, David
Lee and I realized there was still time to head on to our homes
and image or photograph the event.(David does this website too).

At this point I'd had my CCD three months with very little time
spent imaging. There was only about twenty minutes or so to get
everything up and running and make a few sample images for exposure
before it was time. Without a permanent setup this would have
been one of many missed oportunities. There simply wouldn't have
been time.

Attempting to photograph an occultation of Aldebaran, I missed
it through lack of experience with the abruptness of the disappearance.
As a friend from Newfoundland would say," I looked and there
it was, gone", so I was happy to get even these results.

The images are only so so but simply capturing such an ephemeral
event makes them more interesting than they otherwise would be
and will be a post card of the evening, the month and the early
days of my struggles in electronic imaging

Lunar Occultation Frame 1

Imaged at 1:19:34 PDT

Unbinned

15 ms exposure

Lunar Occultation Frame 2

Imaged at 1:21:40 PDT

2x2 binning

15 ms exposure

Lunar Occultation Frame 3

Imaged at 1:23:10 PDT

Unbinned

15 ms exposure

Lunar Occultation Frame 4

Imaged at 1:47:19 PDT

2x2 binning

15 ms exposure

Editor's Note

As Eric points out the night was indeed a special night,
occultations have that magical quality about them. There is something
special about being able to know when a event will occur to such
precision, like clockwork. That night I only observed the occultation,
watching Aldebaran disappear into the moon and like clockwork
reappear out the other side. The reappearance is certainly the
highlight, watching the star reappear and hang over a dark lunar
landscape is breathtaking. - David Lee

January 7, 1998 The Moon

Phase 78%

2x2 Binning

10 ms Exposure

Eric can be reached at eric_schandall@telus.net
. Other images by Eric Schandall will be available in the Images
section of this website in the near future.

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